SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 8:5

8:5a

Then I and all the troops with me: The phrase all the troops with me refers to the ten thousand Israelite soldiers who stayed with Joshua and who did not hide behind Ai.

will advance on the city: The phrase will advance on the city indicates that Joshua and the soldiers with him will move toward the town as if they are going to attack it.

8:5b

When: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as When introduces the next event in the storyline.

they come out against us: The clause they come out against us indicates that the soldiers of Ai will come out of the town gate to attack the Israelite soldiers.

us: The word us is exclusive. Joshua spoke to the soldiers who were not with him.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

when they come out of the town to attack us (excl.)

as they did the first time: The phrase as they did the first time refers to the first time that the Israelites tried to capture Ai in 7:4-5. Some English versions place this phrase at the end of verse 5c. For example:

When the men of Ai come out against us, we will turn and run, just as we did the first time. (Good News Translation)

8:5c

we will flee from them: The clause we will flee from them indicates that the soldiers who are with Joshua will run away from the soldiers of Ai.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

we (excl.) will run away from them

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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